Review: Imagine combining the mystery and intrigue of National Treasure with the puzzles and hidden messages in The da Vinci Code and infusing it into everyday classroom content and skills. With Breakout EDU, a game developed by two educators looking to bring the escape room craze to the classroom, teachers have the power to design an experience students won’t soon forget.

Review: For those unfamiliar with the medium of games Stardew Valley can come as a surprise. It has no real ‘great evil’ to defeat, no major storyline to uncover, no impending threat. It is a just a simple game about making one rustic little community a better place.

Review:In the years since Journey’s original release, it has proven to be a game that resonates not only with “hardcore” gamers but also with players who look to interactive media as a bridge to cross into art, psychology, philosophy, literature, and even education. Reviewers and journalists in the video game industry write about Journey with a level of reflection that seems reserved only for fine art or a best selling novel: “Journey's beauty not only echoes in its vistas and music, but in the subtle details that coax you in” (Ryan Clements –IGN), “[Journey’s] deliberate ambiguity brings on the urge to speculate on deeper meanings, but meaning here is bound to be personal, and best discovered for yourself” (Jane Douglas –Gamespot), and “Give Journey the same attention you might bring to a musical concert, a well-directed film, or a long-awaited book, and its rewards are substantial” (Matt Miller –Gameinformer). So what is it, really, that makes this game so special? ​

Review:A unique twist on the puzzle game genre, World of Goo challenges players to reach the end of a map using little balls of goo with different properties and functions. Most all of the goo balls connect in some way, shape,or form, and connecting them together creates structures, shapes, and elaborate designs that can help deposit the necessary amount of “goo” to the end of the level, denoted by a vacuum pipe that sucks the little goo balls to freedom. However, the levels are not simply a bridge construction project. Often, the environment presents unique challenges, such as spikes, water, floating platforms, and other obstacles that require a bit of pre-planning and problem-solving to maneuver your goo balls to safety.

Number of Players: Single Player or Multiplayer (for battles and trades)Difficulty Rating: Easy

Review: Earlier, we were going to release a review of another incredible game, but then the gaming community lost a crucial figure, Iwata Satoru, CEO of Nintendo since 2002. Iwata was responsible for growing and continuing many of the classic franchises that have created lifelong gamers and Nintendo fans as well as leading the company toward innovative systems and games. For me personally, Nintendo is the reason I started gaming. I was a daycare kid who would watch in complete awe as kids played Pokemon on Gameboys. The games left my fingers itching to try the games and see what it was all about. When I finally had a Gameboy Advance of my own, Pokemon was the first game I played and it was the first video game that I not only loved but I also learned from. Pokemon was a haven for me. It was a way to connect with other kids and experience accomplishment and pride in my hard work. Iwata Satoru was the CEO of Nintendo ever since I fell in love with the Pokemon series (and later the Legend of Zelda series). If it wasn’t for Nintendo and Iwata’s work, I don’t know if I would have found my way into gaming and eventually to creating Gamindex and working to bring games into education. Call it personal bias, but it only felt right to honor his memory and his work in even this small way.

Review: The mere existence of the game Scribblenauts Remix is an incredible feat. The original designers literally scoured through dictionaries and encyclopedias, putting every conceivable item, being, or… noun, really, into the game itself. Their vision? What if a gamer has to solve a puzzle in a sandbox world, but they could conjure up any people, items, or beings they found necessary to reach the goal? With that concept in mind, Scribblenauts was born.

Review: Math can be a difficult subject to cross with other subject areas. In Loot Pursuit, Dig-It Games combines math practice with historic facts as players complete problems to rescue artifacts from smugglers. Available on iOS, Loot Pursuit has two entries in its series so far: one set in Pompeii and one in Tulum that allows players to explore ancient civilizations through the artifacts found. For this review, we looked specifically at Loot Pursuit: Pompeii.

Review:Once upon a time, there was a girl named Aurora, a young Austrian princess who finds herself transported to the magical kingdom of Lemuria and is tasked with rescuing the sun, stars, and moon from the wicked Queen of Night. While this sounds like it could be a classic fairy tale, Aurora’s adventure to rediscover the light is the plot to Ubisoft’s game Child of Light. Players team up with colorful creatures in Lemuria and navigate beautiful painted landscapes as they complete quests and defeat monsters, allowing any player to feel like the hero of their own fairy tale.

Review: When Might and Delight decided to make Shelter, they set out to make an emotional experience for players. The means to their goal? A family of badgers. Shelter puts players in the role of a mother badger leading her five children through a forest to find safety in a new shelter. Along the way, the player is responsible for ensuring the safety of all of the cubs. Cubs have to be fed, found in the dark when they run off, and protected against threats like surging rivers, raging fires, and deadly predators.

Review:For a quick, easy-to-understand game that can teach students about historical facts, landmark events, and scientific advances, look no further than Timeline, a simple card game that requires players to put all of their events in chronological order before their opponent does. Starting with one event in the center, players take turns deciding if the event on their card occurred before, after, or between events on the ever-growing timeline. First player to run out of cards and not gain any more for a round wins!